Having quality management accounts can be beneficial to your business as they can help you to grow by making it more efficient and hopefully more profitable.

Management accounts are a set of detailed accounts prepared to illustrate the company’s performance. The goals of the accounts are to provide key financial information which will help with short term financial decisions and in planning for long term development.

The main advantage of having management accounts is being able to control the business. If you want to make projections, cash flows or be able to be accepted for finance, management accounts are an essential starting point. They will provide you with the up to date information throughout the year to give you accurate feedback of performance. If you find that your business is growing rapidly and want to be able to plan for the future, we recommend that you put in the controls and ways of reporting now to help guide the growth.

Typically, the accounts are prepared on a quarterly basis; it is not uncommon however to have monthly reports supplied to the business.

If you feel that additional guidance is needed as your business starts to grow, then please get in contact with us so we can help you make the right the decisions. Please visit our website for a complete list of our support services Click Here.

Self-development allows individuals not just to achieve their career and personal goals, but also helps to support the achievement of business objectives since skilled, fulfilled employees will make more effective contributions to the activities of businesses. It is also beneficial as you may well receive more positive feedback from stakeholders and greater client retention.

Personal and professional development ensures your current knowledge and skills are always up to date, which will enable you to provide clients with the best possible service. You can track your development using CPD and PDP logs which will allow you to reflect on your progress and identify any improvements that can be made. Some employers ask to see potential employee’s CPD and PDP logs as it shows that they would be valuable to the business and progress within it.

Personal and professional development also means that you can keep up with trends and developments within your profession. If relevant rules and regulations change, all members of staff would be expected to be up to date which will then form part of their continuing professional development.

In order to identify trends within your profession, you could look at ways in which your business has changed, how these changes have affected functions and roles and how the changes can be managed to your best advantage. Examples of changes include the growing use of social media and the internet, customer feedback and expansion or globalisation.

So, we already knew about some of the announcements before the chancellor, the Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond MP, spoke yesterday, so much so he even made a joke about toilets and leaks. As ever there was good news and bad news for taxpayers, a full summary is on our website but here are some good news/bad news highlights:

Capital allowances – a new Structures and Buildings Allowance (SBA) for non-residential buildings on eligible construction costs on or after 29 October 2018, this will enable business to claim 2% pa on cost

The corporation tax rate, as previously announced, will drop to 17% from 2020

Bad news

Capital allowances – the writing down allowance (WDA) on special rate pools, for things such as cars with CO2 emissions of over 130g/km, reducing from 8% to 6% pa

Capital allowances – discontinued 100% allowances for energy & water efficient equipment, although you will still be able to claim AIA’s

National Living Wage (previously National Minimum Wage) for over 25’s increasing from £7.83 per hour to £8.21 (which also has an effect on the auto-enrolment pension contribution cost)

Off payroll working (IR35) currently in force for public companies will be introduced on private medium and large companies (although not until 2020) – PAYE and NIC will be deducted from the deemed employee and Employers National Insurance will be payable by the company.

Stamp Duty – First time buyers of a qualifying shared ownership in a property of £500,000 or less will get an exemption from SDLT and this is backdated to 22 November 2017 (i.e. you can claim a refund)

Stamp duty refunds – the time to make a claim for a refund on the 3% supplement on buying your new home before selling your old home, has been extended from 3 months to 12 months from the sale of your old home (although the filing deadline for SDLT returns is reduced to 14 days after the effective rate of transaction)

Capital Gains – annual exemption increased from £11,700 to £12,000 pa

Bad news

Rent a room relief – you will actually need to have shared the premises during part of the time you are claiming the relief, effectively excluding income from places like Airbnb

Entrepreneurs relief – to qualify, the minimum period is extended from 12 months to 24 months

Capital Gains – lettings relief will only apply when the property is in shared ownership with a tenant, in reality this means very few people will qualify and therefore only get private residence relief on sale of their home, however this is subject to consultation and may well change

The above is only a brief summary of the proposed changes. For a more detailed breakdown please visit our website here.

If you have any questions about the budget, or how it will impact you or your business, please contact us on 0116 242 3400 and we will be happy to help.

The government has decided not to proceed with plans to abolish Class 2 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from April 2019.

Class 2 NICs are currently paid at a rate of £2.95 per week by self-employed individuals with profits of £6,205 or more per year. The government had planned to scrap the Class 2 contribution and had been investigating ways in which self-employed individuals with low profits, could maintain their State Pension entitlement if this inexpensive contribution had been abolished.

In a written statement to MPs, Robert Jenrick, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, stated that:

‘This change was originally intended to simplify the tax system for the self-employed. We delayed the implementation of this policy in November to consider concerns relating to the impact on self-employed individuals with low profits. We have since engaged with interested parties to explore the issue and further options for addressing any unintended consequences.’

‘A significant number of self-employed individuals on the lowest profits would have seen the voluntary payment they make to maintain access to the State Pension rise substantially. Having listened to those likely to be affected by this change we have concluded that it would not be right to proceed during this parliament, given the negative impacts it could have on some of the lowest earning in our society.’

If you want to discuss any of this further please get on touch, 0116 2423400 or info@torrwaterfield.co.uk

Last year the team, friends and family took part in a 2 day challenge, walking 23 miles per day along The Llyn Peninsula. This year we are challenging ourselves even further by trekking 40 miles around Rutland overnight. This means no time to rest as the team begins the challenge at 10pm on Saturday 27 October and will continue non-stop (except for a few pub breaks!) through into the late afternoon of Sunday 28 October, taking a total of 16 to 18 hours to complete.

After parking our cars Mike Waterfield and Stu Caney will lead the team along the south end of Rutland Water before walking up the west side. This will be a good starting point as it will prevent the group from getting lost in the dark as Rutland Water will be on our right hand side for a couple of hours (around 6 miles).

Shortly after midnight and a short break to recharge, we will cross over the River Gwash, pass through Braunston in Rutland and then make our way south whilst the sun rises. The clocks will have gone back by this point which means we have an early finish! Matt Smith and other members of Torr Waterfield will be meeting us once we reach Morcott at around 9am, when we will then follow the River Welland from Barrowden after breakfast for 6 miles. This will lead us to the built up village of Ketton where we can stop for a bite to eat at around 1pm before eventually getting back to the starting point for 3pm.

We will also be meeting a few others in Ketton who were not able to join us for the whole 40 miles. They will be walking the last 5 miles with us and celebrating the success of completing the challenge!

For any long distance walking challenge there is only one form of training that will ensure you perform well – walking! So in the lead up to the challenge we will be doing a number of training walks to ensure we can endure the whole 40 miles! Our first training walk was last Saturday starting from Bradgate Park and walking 15 miles which took around 6 hours.

Over the coming weeks we will be posting other blogs to keep you updated on how our training is going and once we complete the challenge we will let you know how tough it was and how much money we raised in total.

A married couple or civil partnership can apply to transfer 10% of the income tax personal allowance from one to the other. Although called the marriage ‘allowance’, it is a transfer rather than an additional allowance.

To qualify for the allowance, neither of the partners can be higher rate taxpayers and cannot be claiming the married couple’s allowance. To benefit as a couple, one person should be earning below the personal allowance (£11,850 for 2018/19).

The maximum tax saving in 2018/19 is £237.00 (10% of the £11,850 personal allowance at 20%).

How to apply

The application for the transfer is made by the person who wants to transfer part of their allowance to their partner. It is absolutely fundamental that the recipient of the allowance does not make the claim.

If your income is predictable, you can apply during the tax year here. If you apply during the tax year, the claim is in place until withdrawn or through either death or divorce.

If your income is unpredictable, because you are self-employed for example, you can make an application after the tax year on your Self-Assessment Tax Return. This claim must be done each year – it does not remain in place for future years.

Backdated claims

Currently, you can backdate marriage allowance claims to include any tax year since 5 April 2015 if you were eligible. This means you could claim back as much as £662 if you can claim for 15/16, 16/17 and the 17/18 tax year.

The Married couple’s allowance

If either you or your partner were born before 6 April 1935 you may benefit more from the Married Couple’s Allowance instead, which you can read more about here.

For further information or help on the above, please call the office on 0116 242 3400 or email us at info@torrwaterfield.co.uk

(A-levels, further education or an approved training course, you MUST tell the taxman if you’re claiming child benefit or risk losing out on thousands of pounds a year)

June was a busy period for students throughout the UK as they completed their GCSE and A-Level exams, but what happens to your child benefits afterwards?

Your Child Benefit stops on 31 August on or after your child’s 16th birthday if they leave education or training. It continues if they stay in approved education or training, but you must tell the Child Benefit Office.

You’ll be sent a letter in your child’s last year at school asking you to confirm their plans.

You must report any change of circumstances to the Child Benefit Office.

When your child leaves approved education or training, payments will stop at the end of February, 31 May, 31 August or 30 November (whichever comes first).

Temporary breaks

If there has been a break in your child’s education or training (for example if they change college), you might get Child Benefit during the break. In this case you should tell the Child Benefit Office.

Apply for an extension

You could get Child Benefit for 20 weeks (called an ‘extension’) if your child leaves approved education or training and either:

registers with their local careers service, Connexions (or a similar organisation in Northern Ireland, the EU, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein)

signed up to join the armed forces

To qualify for this, your child must:

be 16 or 17

work less than 24 hours a week

not get certain benefits (eg Income Support)

You must have been entitled to Child Benefit immediately before they left the approved education or training and apply for it within 3 months of them leaving.

HMRC has issued a warning to taxpayers regarding the latest tax refund scams. These scams are targeting individuals via email and SMS messages.

HMRC is currently processing genuine tax refunds for the 2017/18 tax year and the fraudsters are sending scam messages which claim that taxpayers are entitled to a rebate. These messages go on to request that they provide their personal and account details in order to make their claim.

HMRC is keen to stress that it will only ever inform individuals of a tax refund by post or through their employer, and never via email, text messaging or voicemail.

Commenting on the issue, Treasury Minister Mel Stride said

We know that criminals will try and use events like the end of the financial year, the self assessment deadline, and the issuing of tax refunds to target the public and attempt to get them to reveal their personal data’.

HMRC is advising taxpayers not to click on any links, download any attachments or provide any personal information, and to forward any suspect messages to HMRC.